05/06/2026
Today was another of those rescue missions, a lovely family from new Zealand were in the uk and in a bit of trouble..:)
Had a phone call a couple of days ago..
Hi, we are just returning from Dublin to the UK and our front wheel bearing has gone and we are driving to China ....
Apparently they had the front bearing done at a garage but it failed so the garage did it again and sadly it failed again... They were reluctant to go back so did some searching and found us..
They got the bearings and the spacers ready and we squeezed them in today for the work.
I stripped the offside first as that was the toughest and found a real horrible mess.
The outer race had chunks missing and a crack all the way around! I'm guessing they had less than a hundred miles before total collapse..
Dismantled it all and cleaned it. A small area of damage was found and cleaned up. The new outer races were installed and then the inners jigged up and put in for measuring with the dial gauge.
With the measurements in hand we toddled of to my old place of work and borrowed the surface grinder.. once the right size it was back to the workshop and reassembly.
The near side was smooth but very tight so we decided to sort it before it failed completely.
Upon disassembly we found the races were discoloured with heat and the previous mechanic had cut the old bearings off and damaged the sealing area . Customer had bought a spare hub so I used that and left the old one with him as a spare as it would still work fine to get you out of trouble..
This side was assembled and the spacer did not need grinding.
Both sides done and customers now back after a bus ride to Gloucester for the day.
